Europe's largest-selling newspaper, Bild, is to erect a paywall for some of its online content from next month.

Its main news stories will remain free to access. Otherwise, visitors to its website will be required to pay a subscription fee, with the basic digital package costing €4.99 (£4.27) a month.

A new printing technique will enable people who buy the print issue - which costs 70 cents (60p) a day - to obtain access to the website. The publisher, Axel Springer, refers to the technique as a "world premiere" for the newspaper industry.

The Associated Press report quotes Bild's head of digital, Donata Hopfen, as saying: "It is a change of paradigm toward a culture of paying for journalistic content online… It's a mammoth project."

Bild's online service is Germany's leading news website, and Axel Springer's CEO, Mathias Döpfner, admits the partial paywall could "go wrong." But he believes there is no alternative to raising revenue in order to fund quality journalism.

An additional service offering video footage from football games – to which Axel Springer acquired the German rights – will cost an extra €2.99 a month.

Bild's daily print circulation has been falling for the past few years and now stands at about 2.5m, some 200,000 more than The Sun (which sold 2.28m in April).